Just days after Category 4 Hurricane Ian devastated Florida, killing at least 88 people and leveling and flooding thousands of buildings, nearly every Florida Republican in U.S. Congress voted against a bill containing billions in funding for disaster relief that officials could have accessed to begin recovery after the storm.
Last week, Congress passed a stopgap government funding bill that contained $18.8 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to account for climate crisis-fueled, worsening natural disasters that Florida officials could use to speed recovery from Ian, according to the Daily Beast. The bill provided FEMA with a year’s worth of disaster funds, rather than just the next few months’ worth.
